Improvement in seed-drills



l. R. SY M M ES.

Seed-Drill'.

Patented .lune 22 1875.

Ma/idgjaw.

UNITED STA'rEs JOSEPH sviiinns, or HAMILTON, Orn'o.

g IMPROVEMENT IN SEED-onlus.

Spciiication forming part of Letters Patent No. 164,7Sl, dated June 22, 1875; application filed September 30, 1874.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH R. SYMMEs, of Hamilton, in the county of Butler and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Seed-Drills; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

Figure l represents so much of a horizontal section of my improved seed-drill as to exhibit the position and arrangement of the conductinghose and plows, and the manner of connecting them with the frame. Fig. 2 represents a side elevation of a part of the frame and the operating parts. Fig. 3 represents one of the metal Vdistributingtubes, of slightly modified form, with parts broken away.

The grain-drills in most common use are provided with tubular drill-teeth, which open a furrow and conduct the grain below the surface of the ground, depositing it ina narrow row, where it is covered by the displaced earth as the drill-teeth advance, the earth falling upon it and covering it at the bottom of the narrow furrow. When grain is thus sown, the field presents a ridged or corrugated surface, and the seed is slightly covered at the bottom ot' V-shaped grooves or furrows, between which the ridges are formed by the action ot' the tubular drill-teeth. Again, when grain-drills have been constructed to cover the grain by side plows, or plows ruiming between the drill-tubes, the office of the said plows has been thus far only to throw back into the previously-opened seedfurrow, the earth turned out therefrom.

My improvement is intended to Obviate these objections, by first sowing the seed upon the surface ot' the ground, and then covering the welldistributed seed'by the use ot'a series of plows or shovels connected with the machine, which will, in covering it, leave the seed on a higher plane than in other methods, and form A-shaped ridges of earth above the rows of seed, and leave V-shaped furrows between the rows of grain, which serves more effectually to protect the seed from injury by water and ice. l

My improvement may be readily attache to the common seed-drill by dispensing with the drill-teeth.

In the `accompanying drawings, A A denote the side pieces and one of the front pieces otl a common seed-drill frame. Underneath the crosstimber A drag-bars a b are hinged. To the rear ends of drag-bars b are tubular metal grain-conductors fi, having their lower ends provided with inclined lips, to clear the track or path for the seed, and these conductors are firmly secured to the bars b; and shovels d, having curved Shanks, are pivoted between the drag-bars a a, as represented in Figs. l and 2, and may be secured at the desired angle by means of wooden pins, which pass through their shanks and the drag`bars, between which they are pivoted. Each of the drag-bars b, and each pair ot dragbars a a, are provided with adjusting-chains, in the usual manner of seed-drills. Flexible conducting-pipes j' lead from the seed-boxes (to be located at g) into the seed-distributers 17, which, as above stated, may be provided with receding' lianges or lips, to clear the surface of the ground upon which the seed will be dropped.

ln Fig. 3, the lower end of the distributing seed-conductor i is represented as provided with two V-shaped cross-pieces, designed to cause the falling grain to be scattered upon the ground within the compass oi' the conductor-s lower orifice, and a similar crosspiece may be secured in the center of conA ductor if, as may be seen in this ligure; but this distributer is not provided with the trackclearing tlan ges.

The distributing-conductors t' z" will, when the machine is in use, be adjusted so that their lower ends will sweep along in contact with the surface of the ground, and remove any clods or other obstructions from the path in which the seed will be sown, and the shovels or plows d will forni a ridge ot' soil above the rows of grain as the machine advances.

It is apparent that this machine is capable of use as a cultivator for any kind of grain or vegetable sown in rows, and it may also be employed as a planter by the substitution of a dropping mechanism, which will drop the grain at suitable intervals.

The openings at the lower ends of the distributing-tubes 'muy be oval-shaped or cylin- In a grainldrill', the combination 0i. the surdrioal, to sow the grain in wider or narrower facie-sweeping grain-distributers with the desire to secure by Letters Patentridgeforming covering-plows, substantially as and for the purpose herein specified. i

In testimony whereof I have hereunto se my hand this 17th day of September, A. D. Y

` JOSEPH R. SYMMES. Witnesses:

H. P. K. PECK, 'RICHARD BROWN. 

